Psa 83:1-5 Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace^H2790, and be not still, O God – Part 1

Our title this week comes from the first verse which is a prayer of Asaph^H623 (Asaph meaning ‘collector’ or ‘gatherer’, and his sons name Joah which means ‘recorder'(Isa 36:3). God has called us to be His witnesses who both sow and gather together and bear witness of His mercy working in our lives. God’s mercy is revealed in giving us a hunger and thirst for the words of eternal life that are judging us today, in this day of judgment or visitation.

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Amo 9:13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman^H2790 shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Mat 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Asaph is moved of the holy spirit to ask God to not keep silent, and to hold not His peace, and be not still. These three spiritual attributes are needful and necessary in order to be a witness in this world whose words are becoming less and less his own because the words of the Lord that are judging us “in the day of judgment” and “in the last day”today!

We must keep not silent, we must hold not our peace, and we must not be still be neglecting so great a salvation by not stirring up the living waters within us that enable us to be ready to give an answer for the hope within us to every man. The living waters of God’s word are being purified so that we are no longer speaking by the wisdom of man but by the power of the holy spirit.

1Pe 3:15 But sanctify^G37 the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (Isa 8:6)

Heb 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

2Ti 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Jas 3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom (Isa 8:6).

1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

God has called us to not just be a silent witness lying dead in the street of Jerusalem (Rev 11:8, but rather both a silent and living and active witness to the world, letting our light shine that we may glorify our Father in heaven by both lying dead “in the street of the great city”, which is typical of being on the cross (Gal 2:20), and letting our light shine (Mat 5:16) in this world which is what we are doing when we carry our cross and follow Christ (Mat 16:24). It is by enduring through the judgements in our life that God provides so we can learn obedience (Heb 5:8, Pro 3:11) that we can go from glory to glory (2Co 3:18) as we become more and more comfortable in the fiery process of maturing in the Lord which will produce “the waters of Shiloah that go softly” (Rev 11:5-6, 1Pe 4:12, 1Pe 4:17).

Revelation 11 verse 5 tells us “if any man will hurt them” “fire proceedeth out of their mouth” (Heb 1:7), and that life-long process that we are going through as the body of Christ is the only way we can become those whose words are fire (Jer 5:14) that are able to destroy the wood, hay and stubble within primarily at first, so that we can be used by the Lord in His perfect time to judge all the world – the “if any man will hurt them” of Rev 11:5.

Before we start looking at the verses in Psalm 83 tonight, I want to illustrate with the following verses (Zec 1:11-21, Job 1:7-19) how this fire that judges us is both within and without and how God uses Satan as a tool to walk to and fro in our earth to purify us through the sword that Satan is in God’s hand (Psa 17:13), along with the witness of the angel that goes to and fro in the earth and tells us “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy”, which is what Christ was lamenting in these verses.

Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
Luk 19:43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

It takes both angels, the light and the darkness that are the same unto God (Isa 45:7, Psa 139:12), to form the new man, and as we will see there is a positive and negative ‘rest of the land’. If God is working with us in this age to bring us unto perfection on the third day, our rest will be in the Lord and something that comes about because of the judgment which He brings into our heavens by those means which He has ordained. An example of a negative rest would be how Babylon equates popularity, large congregations, and health and wealth as a sign that God is blessing a person and that one has found favor with Him spiritually, to which Christ responds in Luk 6:26-27 and Luk 12:15).

Two angels doing the work of the Lord

Zec 1:11 And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Zec 1:12 Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? [Luk 19:41-42, Rev 15:8]
Zec 1:13 And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.
Zec 1:14 So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Zec 1:15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.[2Ti 3:13]
Zec 1:16 Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. [Mat 24:2, Zec 4:9]
Zec 1:17 Cry yet [“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God”], saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities [not the cities of Psa 83:6-11] through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
Zec 1:18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
Zec 1:19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. [The four horns represent the power of God that goes forth to scatter the whole head and heart that is sick and represented by Judah, Israel and the capital Jerusalem, which is the heart of man’s religion and where God’s elect lie dead in the street of the great city (Isa 1:3-5, Rev 11:8]
Zec 1:20 And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
Zec 1:21 Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. [Again the message is the same, but this time we are reminded that we are as Christ in this world (1Jn 4:17, Mat 13:55) and God has purposed that it will take the whole, or all “four carpenters”, to accomplish this work of casting out the “horns of the Gentiles” both within and eventually without (Rev 5:10, Rev 11:15)]

Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face (1Pe 4:12).
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house [there eldest brothers house is a type of Christ where we break the true break of life and drink his blood or wine which is all symbollic of God’s word]:
Job 1:14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: [notice it is when the “oxen were plowing” and “the asses feeding beside them” when this most severe trial came upon Job and his family]
Job 1:15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee [once again what sounds dire, and it is for the flesh, is a shadow for us of how we are God’s servants and sheep who are consumed at the altar of God, which is the cross, by “the fire of God is fallen from heaven”].
Job 1:17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. [In both instances of “I only am escaped alone to tell thee” we are being reminded that we are saved yet so as by fire so that we can be the true witnesses of God whether we live or die (Rom 14:8).]
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: [again these things happen in our eldest brother’s house (Christ) and the intensity and crescendo of events is a reminder for God’s elect of the wars and rumors of wars that are upon us and going to amplify at the end of the age (2Ti 3:13, Mat 24:6)]
Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. [Judgment is upon the house of God, and we are promised to escape through death that will destroy the “young men” who represent the carnal fleshly mind that must lie dead in the street of the great city (1Co 10:13, Rev 11:8)]

Everything said up to this point is hopefully good ground work to help us understand the following verses of this Psalm 83 that apply to how God is destroying the man of perdition within each of our own heavens in this age as His people who are being judged (2Th 2:3-4).

Psa 83:1 A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence^{H408 H1824}, O God: hold not thy peace^H2790, and be not still^H8252, O God.

H408 silence
אל
‘al
al

H1824 quiet
דּמי   דּמי
demı̂y dŏmı̂y
dem-ee’, dom-ee’

From H1820; quiet: – cutting off, rest, silence.

A negative particle (akin to H3808); not (the qualified negation, used as a deprecative); once (Job_24:25) as a noun, nothing: – nay, neither, + never, no, nor, not, nothing [worth], rather than.

Job, who represents our carnal rebellious old man, says “who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?” and as we know the answer is God’s word, which is a fiery sword that will judge Job and take away his wisdom, and the idols of his heart and he will be purified once he comes into this rest which he does symbolically for our sakes (1Co 10:11).

“Hold not thy peace”^H2790 is really another way of saying don’t stop working with the clay (Php 1:6, Jer 18:4), or keep working in us both to will and to do of your good pleasure (Php 2:13), or keep us zealous and with our hands on the plow (Luk 9:62).

H2790 peace
חרשׁ
chârash
khaw-rash’

A primitive root; to scratch, that is, (by implication) to engrave, plough; hence (from the use of tools) to fabricate (of any material); figuratively to devise (in a bad sense); hence (from the idea of secrecy) to be silent, to let alone; hence (by implication) to be deaf (as an accompaniment of dumbness): – X altogether, cease, conceal, be deaf, devise, ear, graven, imagine, leave off speaking, hold peace, plow (-er, -man), be quiet, rest, practise secretly, keep silence, be silent, speak not a word, be still, hold tongue, worker.

And when Asaph prays “and be not still^H8252, O God” we are being reminded and admonished that unless the Lord builds the house the weary laborers toil in vain, because He alone is the one who determines on whom he will have mercy and who will remain a vessel of dishonor and for what period of time (Psa 127:1, Rom 11:22).

H8252 still
שׁקט
shâqaṭ
shaw-kat’

A primitive root; to repose (usually figuratively): – appease, idleness, (at, be at, be in, give) quiet (-ness), (be at, be in, give, have, take) rest, settle, be still.

Psa 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Psa 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Psa 83:4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

Now Asaph begins to describe what God’s elect are up against after acknowledging, at least in type and shadow, that it is only God who can overcome our enemies within and without by not keeping silent but by witnessing to every man and by not holding back but letting the light of Christ shine in this world.

Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Col 1:29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

The enemy makes a loud noise, a tumult, and these verses apply both inwardly and outwardly that Christ spoke many years ago and yet we know that they are ‘is, was and will be aorist words that will not pass away’.

Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

It is the highminded who have lifted up the head against God’s elect.

2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [why perilous times?the following verses answer this question]
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

It is as the scripture says “crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones” not knowing that God is sovereign over all that counsel, the light and dark counsel which He is working according to His will.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

This strong delusion that God brings upon the world is something that the Psalmist echos in these verses “They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” so we can learn how God allows our enemies both within and without to come up at us only to “flee before thee seven ways”.

Deu 28:7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

Psa 83:5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

This spirit of being “confederate” is something that happened against Christ at this moment of his life which reminds us that the religious world and they of our own household are going to and have “consulted together with one consent” against God’s elect, but we must remember this was all according to the counsel of God’s will and has been purposed from the foundation of the world.

Luk 23:12 And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the conclusion of our two part study entitled “Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God” where we will look more closely at the symbolism of all those gentile cities that must be destroyed and how God is faithful to start and finish that which He has promised He will accomplish in the remnant who are called and chosen to be witnesses of His great mercy, faithfulness and love.